There is only one thing wrong with Sheryl Crow’s theme song for the film Tomorrow Never Dies – and that is k.d. Lang’s song Surrender was so much better, and slotted in nicely with David Arnold’s musical score throughout the film. But let’s pretend we live in an alternate universe where Lang’s version doesn’t exist, and then I think you can appreciate that Crow’s song is a good, poppy little number with enough Bondian flourishes to keep most Bond music fans happy. And the lyrics are pretty good too…and hey, let’s be honest, lyrics are not always the strong point of a Bond theme tune (cases in point being The Man With the Golden Gun and Another Way to Die).

Darling I’m killed
I’m in a puddle on the floor
Waiting for you to return
Oh what a thrill
Fascinations galore
How you tease
How you leave me to burn
It’s so deadly my dear
The power of having you near

[CHORUS]
Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there’ll be no more goodbyes
I see it in your eyes
Tomorrow never dies

Darling you’ve won
It’s no fun
Martinis, girls, and guns
It’s murder on our love affair
But you bet your life
Every night
While you chase in the morning light
You’re not the only spy out there
It’s so deadly my dear
The power of wanting you near

Chorus

Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there’ll be no more goodbyes
I see it in your eyes
Tomorrow Never Dies…

Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there’ll be no more goodbyes
See it in your eyes…

Until the day… Until the day… Until the day…….

Actually, most of the lyrics don’t even make sense, but there one or two nice couplets, and even then a Bond song is never really about the words — it’s about the imagery and the conviction in which it is sung. And Crow sounds pretty convincing. Despite her conviction, Tomorrow Never Dies cannot be considered one of the classic Bond songs, but I don’t see it as a misfire — once again, I just think it is a poor marketing decision to go with this ahead of Surrender. The CD single has four tracks on it, the other three being completely unrelated to the Bond franchise and coming from Crow’s albums Sheryl Crow and Tuesday Night Music Club.

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Excellent points! I like your suggestion that fans look at it like Surrender doesn’t exist, because Crow’s TND really IS quite a good Bond song! And it gets overlooked because of the decision to relegate the composer’s true theme to the end credits. But I always looked at it as a bonus: we get TWO great title songs for this movie! (With that horrible ditty on the vidoegame soundtrack, we even get THREE TND songs, and four if you count the demo version Pulp released a few years ago on their expanded This Is Hardcore album.) Except for The Experience of Love on GoldenEye, I look back on that era when we got separate opening and closing songs with great fondness. Other terrific end title songs include The Pretenders’ If There Was A Man and Scott Walker’s ultimately unused song from TWINE. I wish they’d go back to two songs per movie!

You also make an excellent point about the lyrics (by Crow and Mitchel Froom, I think?) actually making sense. Furthermore, I like how they take the perspective of a character in the film, sung from Paris Carver’s doomed point of view. That was a good touch, and unique at that point, before David Arnold had penned two songs from 007’s point of view.

There was another version of the CD single that included the TND music video instead of the Crow album tracks as its B-side.

Have to disagree about k.d. lang’s song being better. “Surrender” is okay, but feels more generic and passionless somehow. I love the thrumming, slightly off-beat chords and strings at the beginning of Crow’s song, the power and falling-away quality of the chorus, and the intimacy and power of her voice. The melody and lyrics are pretty good too. This one surprised me actually, when I started listening to it on the “Best of Bond” compilation. It was one of the only later songs that I thought stood with the best of Barry.

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Crime Factory: LEE – Lee Marvin: one of the most coolly charismatic and extraordinary screen tough guys ever. Crime Factory celebrates Marvin’s life by making him the star of his own fictional adventures. As James Hopwood ‘1963: Trust’.

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Crime Factory 13 (as james Hopwood ‘As Long as the Paperwork’s Clean’ – an interview with Australian cinema icon, Roger Ward)

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